DEBKA

Israel finally took a hand in the swiftly moving events looming from Syria over its northern borders by launching multiple air raids against the key northern Syrian air base known as T4 near Palmyra early Friday night March 17.

Those events are spearheaded by the pro-Iranian Hizballlah’s drive to capture the Golan in line with its war of “resistance” on the Jewish state. This fixation came into sharp focus the day after the air strike in a rare admission by Hizballah of the loss of a commander. He was named Badee Hamiyeh and was described as having been killed “in the southern Syrian region of Quneitra near the Israeli-held Golan Heights.” This was the first anyone had heard of any recent battle on the Golan.
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After unprecedented missile clash, PM says Israel will continue to operate against weapons transfers from Assad regime to Shiite terror group

BY STEVE WEIZMAN, TOI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday the Israeli strikes on several targets in Syria earlier that day targeted weapons bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and that the Jewish State would do the same again if necessary.

The Israeli airstrike prompted retaliatory missile launches, in the most serious incident between Syria and the Jewish state since the Syrian civil war began six years ago.

Syria’s military said it had downed an Israeli plane and hit another as they were carrying out pre-dawn strikes near the famed desert city of Palmyra that it recaptured from jihadists this month.
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By Raymond Ibrahim, PJ Media

Donald Trump’s new national security advisor, Lt. General H.R. McMaster, has made troubling remarks — such as “the Islamic State is not Islamic” — that one expects from the D.C. establishment. However, a hearty endorsement that he gave to a 2010 book points to the totality of McMaster’s views on security issues as being worse than simply his parroting politically correct memes on Islam.

The book in question is Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat. Written by CDR Youssef Aboul-Enein, it was published by the Naval Institute Press in 2010. I read and reviewed it back in 2012 and found its claims — many of which the Obama administration followed to disastrous results — to be incorrect and problematic.
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A political declaration of Israeli sovereignty over all the land of Israel can only come after a long process of shaping our national identity • But this sovereignty is the only way for us to avoid the existential threat a Palestinian state would pose.

By Dror Eydar, ISRAEL HAYOM

1. As expected, U.S. President Donald Trump will not be doing the dirty work for us. He will not hand us sovereignty over the entirety of our land. He will not be taking responsibility over reinforcing the settlement enterprise. He has his own problems in his own country. It is up to us, just as it has been throughout history. Fifty years after the Six-Day War — our war of redemption — and our return to those parts of our historic land that represent the cradle of our birth as a people, Israel is now taking its time when it comes to cementing our hold over those swathes of land. True, there are strong voices in favor of Israeli sovereignty, but frankly, the voices speaking out against it are no less powerful.
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By David M. Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM

Israeli and American negotiators are currently negotiating “agreed-upon” contours of Israeli settlement activity in Judea and Samaria.

“We want to reach a series of agreed-on principles so as not to return to the Obama period during which there was conflict over every balcony in the territories,” one official in the Prime Minister’s Office said this week.

Reportedly under discussion are a range of limits: limiting construction to current borderlines of built-up settlements; or to the jurisdictional lines of the settlements (which are more expansive); or to the outlines of large settlement blocs such as Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel.

None of these options will be easy to swallow, neither for the right-wing public in Israel nor for the international community.
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By Jonathan S Tobin ISRAEL HAYOM

When Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last week that a push toward annexation of Judea and Samaria would result in “an immediate crisis” with the Trump administration, he provoked a firestorm of criticism from many within the Netanyahu government. Members of the Likud and Habayit Hayehudi parties decried what they felt was a timid approach that would squander a presumed historic opportunity to create new facts on the ground with the approval or indifference of the new American president.

But while that point of view may echo some of the more extravagant hopes of U.S. President Donald Trump’s American Jewish supporters, Lieberman isn’t wrong. Israelis may well celebrate the marked shift in tone from former President Barack Obama’s attitude, but they would be foolish to think Trump has any intention of handing them a blank check. The reasons need to be understood in the context not only of the chaos that is the Trump administration’s early days but also Israel’s strategic needs.
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DEBKA

The Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck several targets in Syria early Friday, March 17, and were back in Israeli-controlled airspace, when Syria launched several anti-aircraft missiles toward the Israeli jets. Israel’s Arrow air defense missile intercepted one of the missiles, the army said, but would not elaborate on whether any other hostile missiles had struck Israeli territory. The safety of Israeli civilians and the safety of the Israeli aircraft “were not compromised,” the IDF spokesman stressed.
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Everyone should calm down and stop jumping to conclusions with every phone call, visit or remark.

BY MELANIE PHILLIPS, JPOST

President Donald Trump continues to be the focus of confusion and division, not least within the Jewish world.

At first he was hailed as massively pro-Israel. He said he was opposed to the Iran deal and Israel’s treatment by the UN, promised to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem and appointed as US ambassador a bullish supporter of the settlers. Jews on the Right were thrilled, Jews on the Left were dismayed.

But then he invited Mahmoud Abbas to the White House and sent his envoy Jason Greenblatt to make nice with him in Ramallah, asked Benjamin Netanyahu to hold back on settlement building and back-pedaled on moving the embassy. Jews on the Right are now dismayed, Jews on the Left are thrilled.
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Holland’s current ruckus with Turkey is only the tip of the European iceberg, most of which is already under water.

By Dr Mordechai Kedar, INN

Sometimes it’s a good idea to take a step backwards, look at reality from a distance, and see the larger picture, taking in the whole forest rather than just the individual trees. If we attempt to review what has been going on in the world since the British decision to leave the European Union and since Donald Trump’s November 16th election victory, it is just possible that the picture emerging is that of a West beginning the fight against Islam after 8 years of submission disguised by a fragile mask of political correctness.

A not insignificant number of factors add up to a wide and inclusive picture: the fact that it is now permissible to say the words “Islamic terror” in the USA, the attempts to limit Muslim immigration to that country, Trump’s decision to finish off ISIS, the strengthening of rightist parties in Europe, the unsuccessful but serious possiblity that Geert Wilders might have been elected in Holland, the discovery of a gigantic weapons cache in Spain – these are only a small example of the issues that have been part of public discourse over the last few months.
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The Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians are working with Israel on countering Iran because they need Israel to help them to weaken Iran.

BY CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

There are iron rules of warfare. One of the most basic rules is that you have to know your enemy. If you do not know your enemy, or worse, if you refuse to act on your knowledge of him, you will lose your war against him.

This basic truth appears to have eluded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This week we have been beset by the bizarre and sudden appearance of Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s negotiations chief.

Greenblatt’s mission is apparently to reinstate the mordant peace process between Israel and the PLO.
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UN Watch Briefing 

With a growing dependence on China and Russia and budding geopolitical ambitions, Tehran is willing to make sacrifices

By David Goldman, ASIA TIMES

[..]The Iranian regime is ready to sacrifice the most urgent needs of its internal economy in favor of its ambitions in Syria. Iran cut development spending to just one-third of the intended level as state income lagged forecasts during the three quarters ending last December, according to the country’s central bank. Iran sold US$29 billion of crude during the period, up from $25 billion the comparable period last year. The government revenues from oil of US$11 billion (655 trillion rials) were just 70% of official forecasts, and tax revenues of US$17.2 billion came in 15% below expectations.
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A review of the mistaken analyses and erroneous conclusions of the US State Department with respect to the Middle East region.

By Yoram Ettinger

1. In 2011, the Department of State welcomed the Arab Tsunami, which has displaced millions of people and murdered hundreds of thousands – and keeps raging – as an Arab Spring, youth revolution, Facebook revolution and a transition towards democracy.

2. In 2011, the State Department recommended the toppling of Gaddafi in Libya, in spite of Gaddafi’s transfer of Libya’s nuclear infrastructure to the US in 2003, and irrespective of his fierce battle against Islamic terrorism. The toppling of the ruthless Gaddafi transformed Libya into the largest, lawless platform of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, spilling over into Africa, Europe and the rest of the world, severely undermining the US national and homeland security.
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The new president’s approach to Iran, Syria, and Israel looks a lot like the old president’s—because the same people are implementing it

By Lee Smith, TABLET

After excoriating Barack Obama’s foreign policy, including his realignment in the Middle East, Trump has yet to nominate any officials below the cabinet level at the State Department or the Pentagon, which means there is no one to formulate Trump’s own foreign policy, never mind implement it. To fill the growing vacuum at the center of American power, the Trump White House is now handing over key foreign-policy positions to Obama administration re-treads who handled the very same portfolios under the previous president. Trump’s tough-as-nails “America first” foreign policy is starting to look like Obama Lite—the exact same policies, implemented by the exact same people. Increasingly, members of Congress are starting to notice—and they’re getting angry.

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary James Mattis withdrew his pick for a top Pentagon spot, Anne Patterson’s ambassadorship to Egypt. Patterson’s dealings with the Muslim Brotherhood rankled top Republican lawmakers, and made her perhaps the least popular American in all of Egypt—and Mattis was compelled to take her name off the board.
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BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 427, March 16, 2017

By Rene Louis Beres

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Although concerns about a Trump confrontation with a nuclear North Korea are widespread, there has been little corollary discussion of crisis implications for other parts of the world. Yet there are important spillover implications to be considered, specifically with reference to the Middle East and Israel’s nuclear strategy.

It appears increasingly plausible that President Donald Trump’s first major test in strategic crisis management will come from North Korea. The spillover effects of any such test, a complex challenge that may or may not have a nuclear dimension, could rapidly involve other countries, including several powerful states in the Middle East.

Context is vital. All world politics ultimately comprise a single integrated system of states. What happens in any one geographic area, therefore, can quickly affect another.
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By Isi LiebLer,

We try to rationalize that the anti-Zionist behavior of individual Jews does not justify anti-Semitic bigotry.

However, the crass political exploitation of their Jewish identity by American leaders of purportedly “nonpartisan” mainstream Jewish organizations is unprecedented. Today, in what must be described as self-destruction, a substantial number of irresponsible leaders of the most successful and powerful Jewish diaspora community seem to have gone berserk and are fueling anti-Semitism.
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‘If You Aren’t Sitting At The Table, You Are Being Eaten At The Table’

By: Yigal Carmon and A. Savyon and Anna Mahjar-Barducci*MEMRI

On March 7, 2017, the chiefs of staff of the U.S., Russian, and Turkish militaries met in Antalya, Turkey to discuss security problems in Syria and Iraq. Conspicuous in its absence at the meeting was any Iranian representation whatsoever. According to a Russian Defense Ministry report, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces Gen. Hulusi Akar, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces Gen. Joseph Dunford were at the Antalya meeting.[1]
Source: Russia Defense Ministry

This report reviews evidence of Russia’s recent rapprochement with the U.S. and Turkey at the expense of Iran, and the implications for Iran and the U.S.
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In While House meeting with defense minister and deputy crown prince, U.S. president tries to enlist Saudi Arabia’s support for efforts to achieve regional solutions.

By Barak Ravid and Amir Tibon, HAARETZ

U.S. President Donald Trump told the Saudi defense minister, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, during a meeting at the White House, he has a “strong desire” to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the White House said in a statement Wednesday.

Trump made the comments as his special envoy, Jason Greenblatt, has continued to conduct talks in Israel and with officials from the Palestinian Authority in an effort to restart peace talks on the conflict.
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T. Belman. Help me out here. I seem to recall that the US had a deal with M16, the British spy agency to do the spying on Israel in the US that the US was barred from doing.

Conservative Tribune

Fox News commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano dropped a bombshell Tuesday when he said that former President Barack Obama may have used a foreign spy agency to surveil President Donald Trump, a move that would have basically eliminated any trail leading back to the former president’s administration.

During an interview on Fox News‘ “Fox & Friends,” Napolitano said that Obama bypassed American spy agencies and obtained transcripts of Trump’s conversations from Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, which is the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency.

“Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command — he didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI and he didn’t use the Department of Justice,” Napolitano said.
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‘There’s no blank check from Trump for construction in the settlements and that was known from the first minute he entered the White House,’ says Israeli official.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expects to reach understandings with the United States within a few weeks on curbing construction in the settlements, according to an Israeli official.

Although the understandings with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration are likely to include Israeli willingness to impose significant restrictions on construction in West Bank settlements, the Prime Minister’s Bureau believes that this will not weaken the coalition.
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